The English exam system is under scrutiny: Under a major overhaul, AS-levels will be separated from A-levels to become a separate qualification.Teenagers taking A-levels will no longer sit exams after one year, and will instead be tested at the end of their two-year course. The new A-levels will be taught from September 2015, which is the same time as GCSEs are set to be replaced with new English Baccalaureate Certificates (EBCs).

Secondary school league tables interactive. Click image to explore it

So what do the results say today?

In state schools across England, 69% of children have gone up the expected level in maths, 68% the expected level in English - and that 38% have achieved the higher level five or above in English and 39% in maths. But GCSE results have been inching up for some time.

In addition A level results show that an average 80% of students got at least three good A levels.

So, how do schools compare? The data below excludes special schools. It shows the best performing local authorities are the Kensington & Chelsea (80% of students there got 5 A*-C GCSEs) and Isles of Scilly (86%). After them come Sutton in Greater London with 76% of children, followed by Trafford near Manchester, Redbridge and Kingston. At the bottom is Knowsley on Merseyside with only 41%, followed by the Isle of Wight with 45%.

The Independent schools are - perhaps unsurprisingly - doing the best after the very small number of City Technology colleges. 72% have got five GCSEs at A*-C level. They are followed by the original unsponsored academies with 70%. In community schools, the figure is 56% and 49% in sponsored academies. Both voluntary-aided and voluntary-controlled schools (which tend to be religious) also do pretty well - 65% and 62% respectively.

The biggest improvements since 2009 have happened with independent schools - an average of +19.9%-points leap. By comparison, Community schools (of which there are many times more) are up 8, and VA and VC at 5.8 and 7 percentage points each.

If you look at how well disadvantaged kids do there is a difference too. For those on free school meals and parents on benefits achieving level four in maths and English, it looks like vulnerable children tend to do better at unsponsored academies (48%) and voluntary aided schools (46%). Community schools come next (39%) with the lowest being foundation schools (38%). Free schools got the same result but they are probably too new to be compared meaningfully this year. For children with English as a second or third language, the best performances came at unsponsored academies and voluntary-aided schools.

Different children go to these schools too. Sponsored academies had the highest proportion of pupils sitting GCSEs defined as disadvantaged - 42%, compared to community schools with 28% and voluntary-aided and original academies at the bottom (24% and 16% respectively).

There were differences in attainment between religious and non-religious schools too.

England's 368 Roman Catholic secondary schools had the highest percentage of children getting their five GCSEs - 87%, followed by 321 Church of England schools with 85%.

Non-religious state schools, of which there are 2,632, had an attainment rate of 78%. Of the smaller religions, which have less schools (making them harder to compare), the 11 Methodist schools had a rate of 92%, followed by Jewish schools with 80% and 7 Quaker schools with 94%. England's 84 Muslim state secondary schools had a rate of only 24%%.

In terms of how well disadvantaged kids do, it looks like vulnerable children tend to do better at Roman Catholic schools (46%). Non-religious come next (43%) followed by CofE (41%).

With A levels, the highest rate was at Roman Catholic schools, with 87% getting three good A levels, compared to 85% at Church of England schools. At non-religious, the figure was 78%.